Do you think prayer is real? Your opinion?

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Silly... I just know.

And back to the OP, it is my opinion that prayer is real, that God is real, that Jesus Christ is His Son Who came to Earth to shed His blood to atone for my sins and Who lives, still today. I have seen prayer answered in ways that could be construed as nothing other than the Hand of God.

I'm sorry so many don't know his Touch. It really does make things more bearable. I'm no different from anyone in here in that I'm basically a societal outcast, kinda kept down by the ideas, suppositions and discrimination of others. I could just accept that and go cry in my soup like so many I see - because anything that could possibly solve their problem is impossible and they're not willing to even consider a solution, or I can take the only Hand that's been offered to me, live my life with the fullest purpose I choose and disregard the rest. I know God. That's really all that matters. The rest will fall in line as it will.

I don't worry. I just be happy.

ao he touched you .... eh... where?(shoves paper doll in face)

and did he leave a mark?

anyone claiming to know for certain doesnt even realize just how biased and completely whack the human brain can be, to say one remembers something is a stretch to begin with, (your brain reconstructs your brains interpretation of said event, meaning its worth bupkiss, just ask the police how good eyewitness accounts are, even when you knwo there was something)

Interesting. Muslims "just know" that Allah is the one true god. Hindus "just know" about their gods. Buddhists "just know" that they will be reincarnated. The Incas "just knew" that Quezacotl demanded blood sacrifices, but somehow that didn't seem to pan out. Mr Camping "just knew" the world was going to end, and he's been wrong about three times now.

When you take an interest in just how we think and "know" things, you start to realise that we really don't know anything at all. But I understand that you'd rather believe in an ultimate truth. Many do. It's a lot more comforting than the idea that there's no sentient force in control of everything, that our actions are entirely our responsibility and that bad things happen to good people just because the universe doesn't care. You are in some highly renowned company!



You really don't try hard enough. Maybe it could be the Hand of God, but if you can't think of ANY alternative explanations, no matter how convoluted or farfetched, you have a serious lack of imagination.



It does. It's called the placebo effect, and that's so weird that no-one can explain how it works, or why, but it demonstrably does.



Ignore every other point as you will, but please explain this one to me - what is this about crying into soup?? Why soup?

I'm also a little concerned that you consider your life so empty that without God's "Invisible Touch" (and I thought that was Phil Collins...) you'd find existence so utterly meaningless. I'll welcome God's touch. Come on, God! Make yourself known! If Jesus were to appear to me, I'd shake his hand and we'd be firm friends. Easy as that. And yet, so far, nothing. It seems you need to be lonely and desperate before God wants to visit you.

The placebo effect works on two different levels:
1) The mere expectation / promise of something positive triggers the release of endorphins that improve people's mood and reduce pain.
2) Feeling understood and cared for, as well as being promised relief, reduces stress levels. Since stress hormones suppress immune system and stress itself can cause all kinds of health conditions, stress reduction has a huge healing potential and also helps people to focus better (which is why prayer helps people to find their misplaced car keys).

There might be more to it, but those two effects are enough to explain why placebos as well as prayer can temporarily reduce stress and pain, and sometimes boost the immune system enough that the body can fight an illness more effectively.

For the most part, yes. But there are much weirder things too. For instance, taking two tablets with half the dose each is more effective than one tablet. Tablets work better when they are the right colour (painkillers, for instance, are usually white). Medicine is more effective if it tastes bad, because we feel nice-tasting stuff isn't proper medicine.

But this is positively sane compared to our resistance to pain being boosted by holding money, or folding our arms.

I think that is mostly cultural conditioning. We've all been given bitter medicines as children, and the color preference is based on experience too.



That's interesting I didn't know that. I have to try this the next time I'm in pain.

Why are you attacking my opinion?

Your comments are completely inappropriate. Why are you attacking my opinion? Why are you trying to humiliate me? Why are you trying to bully me?

I thought you were kidding when you suggested people be afraid of being ridiculed for their opinions. Evidently, the adult development of those at this site hasn't gotten past Jr. High. Is that an aspie thing?

Could you please give us an example?



Um... isn't that the point? If you don't want people to attack your opinions, then just talk to yourself. When you say that prayer has been answered "in ways that could be construed as nothing other than the Hand of God", then you are attacking my opinion that God does not interfere with the physical world. That's the whole point. We attack each other's opinions to find out which ones are correct.

Aspies are known for being logical, which doesn't lend itself well to such concepts as faeries/cloud men/souls/magic.

might be abad joke but you still havent taken anything i wrote into account,(that i find you ignoring facts of the world just as insulting as you found this counts for nothing right?)

it doesnt matter if you can remember an instance where you "saw" god,
because the human brain is notoriously unreliable when it comes to remembering.

read up on it.

It is commonly held by some people that opinions should all be considered equally. This is ludicrous. It's what leads to fringe lunatics like Dr Wakefield getting equal consideration with carefully researched and evidenced science. Your opinion is just that - an opinion. We don't agree with it. You've got two options here - either accept that we disagree with your opinion and leave it at that, or explain why your opinion is valid. Complaining that you are being persecuted is both immature and inaccurate.

Next up on why all opinions are valid, we have David Icke explaining how the lizards rule the planet and an Austrian chap called Adolf explaining why Jews are evil...

Declension, I never attacked your opinion. I simply stated mine. If my opinion differs from yours, that' how it goes. It doesn't mean others get to call me names because they don't agree with my opinion.

Since when is one's opinion up for dissection, supposition, generalization and humiliation?

Taking my words and twisting them to make God into some kind of pedophile is inappropriate.

its equally perverted to play with people as the christian god is portrayed to do, so there was more than actual insult behind the sentiment,
badly put and distastefull i admit.